A206: Understanding Educational Inequality through the Lens of Economics and Race

This course provides students with an introduction to how economists think about the role and value of education within the broader society, with a special emphasis on issues of racial inequality seen through an economic lens. Understanding education through this lens is vital for educators, future policy makers, education reformers and scholars because of the central role that economic analysis plays in shaping the public discussion on education. An aim of this course to equip students to make, understand, and challenge these economic arguments. In the first half of the course we will develop a common language and toolkit. Developing this toolkit will happen in the context of a team-based approach to learning. In the second half of the course we will do a deep dive into understanding several contemporary issues in education with a special focus on higher education and issues at the intersection of race, racial inequality, and education. In particular, we will critically examine the economic arguments used in legal cases on affirmative action in higher education and explore issues of inequality in higher education that derive from access to college, especially in elite colleges and universities. We will also look at alternative credentials such as occupational licensing, which now affects 25% of US and 22% of European Union workers, to explore how they interact with educational inequality.